Stranger Things return gives some critics chills and thrills, but leaves others lukewarm

The first half of the final season of Stranger Things has been unveiled to audiences, with many critics giving the hit Netflix show glowing reviews – though others say it’s reached its peak.

In a four-star review in The Times, Ed Potton wrote, the first four episodes of season five are “entertaining stuff full of appropriate risk and emotion”.

Another four-star article, written by Jack Seale in the Guardian, declared that “This spectacular final race will make you stand on a chair and scream with joy”.

But not everyone was so excited. According to Kelly Lawler of USA Today, the show “oscillates between exciting and annoying”, while Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic described much of it as “largely joyless and serious”.

Netflix briefly crashed when four new episodes were released on Wednesday in the US and Thursday morning in the UK. The streaming service reported that normal service resumed within five minutes, Variety reported.

A further three installments are scheduled to be released over Christmas, culminating in the New Year.

As the wildly popular sci-fi show reaches its climax, the end may also be nigh for the adventurous residents of Hawkins, Indiana, as a confrontation looms between the (now mature) teen heroes and the evil Vecna.

Some fans woke up early to watch the new episodes after they were released at 01:00 GMT on Thursday in the UK.

They included 25-year-old Eve Edmonds, who woke up at 04:45. “I wanted to get up earlier but I fell asleep because of my first alarm,” she told BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat.

“I didn’t take my eyes off the screen and I’m really happy I made this decision.”

These episodes, he said, are “incredible”. “It’s absolutely worth the wait. It keeps you hooked. They didn’t hold back, they pulled out all the stops and I was very impressed.”

The Standard’s Vicky Jessop was equally satisfied. She wrote: “It’s classic 80s adventure fare at its best: kids outwitting adults, plenty of humor and a surprising amount of heart. I devoured it – more please.”

The Times added: “Volume One doesn’t rewrite the manual but why would you want to?”

A four-star review of Empire by Leela Latif stated that it “remains a show that knows exactly what it is, and which reminds us that youth may be precious, but growing older can still be exhilarating”.

He wrote: “All the trademark elements remain intact: dark humor, whimsy, the poetry of shock and hard-earned resilience. What’s most reassuring is how quickly the show proves that it hasn’t lost its sense of entertainment.”

According to Laura Martin of BBC Culture, the “bombastic” fourth episode is Stranger Things “at its best”.

“It’s thrilling; and if this is a harbinger of how the Duffer Brothers plan to end the show… then audiences are in for one of the greatest TV endings of all time.”

In the Telegraph, a three-star review by Ed Power wrote that Stranger Things “remains relaxing viewing of the highest class”.

He said, “Right now, despite a slightly slow start, the signs are promising that it will do one better than Game of Thrones and live up to audience expectations.”

The Guardian also offered some warnings in its positive review.

Seeley wrote, “Stranger Things definitely needs to turn off its boombox, hang up its slingshot, and admit that it’s too old for these capers, but it’s worth indulging in one last time.”

The show’s fifth season had a critics’ score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, although some critics were not entirely enthused.

Sam Adams at Slate said, “The cast is getting bigger, but the show isn’t.”

“It’s not just Hawkins who feels cut off from the world. It’s Stranger Things itself, a show now encased in an airless, impenetrable bubble of static characters and entangled lore.”

Others also pointed to the increasing age of the central characters.

Angie Hahn of The Hollywood Reporter said: “It’s time to let these teenagers do what teenagers should do: grow up and move on with the rest of their lives.”

Alison Herman of Variety wrote: “By refusing to enrich its characters as they age, Stranger Things traps itself in stunted development. When you grow up without going deeper, you grow thin.”

Ben Travers of IndieWire declared that season five “leaves you wanting less”, while Michael Walsh of Nerdist agreed that less could have been more.

He wrote, “Stranger Things 5 ​​is off to a great start.” “a lot a lot.

“While very little of these four excessively long episodes is downright bad in itself (with one major exception), too much story, too many characters, and too many complicated/convoluted developments keep Volume One from being great.”

The next three episodes will be released on Christmas Day in the US and Boxing Day in the UK, and the finale will arrive on New Year’s Eve in the US and New Year’s Day in the UK.